tagging experiment

[Paul Cherubini]

Cris Guppy & Aud Fischer wrote:
> 
> You have signficant ethical, not to mention legal problems. It is people
> like you that give a bad name to "amateur" science. I hope the USDA comes
> after you. Furthermore, why should anyone pay any attention to your data?
> Since you will happily break the law to prove your point, I assume you will
> also falsify data.

The tag numbers of all the butterflies involved in the experiment have
been posted at http://www.butterflyboutique.net/ibba_test. So as tagged
monarchs are recovered by scientists in Mexico and California during the course 
of this winter, everyone will know ahead of time what tag numbers
were used at different locations. This eliminates any chance to falsify data.

Many years ago you reported (In the News of the Lep Society) that 
someone had found a tagged monarch in Victoria, British Columbia.
It was one of 982 tagged monarchs that had been air mailed to 
Gibson's Landing, British Columbia for release from Toronto, Ontario
by Donald Davis. There are no laws in Canada prohibiting the transfer of
monarchs across the Rockies.

Laws prohibiting the interstate transport of ANY butterfly in the USA have
been on the books for more than a decade. But a good number of people on 
this list have violated those laws because they are not aware of them and
USDA has not enforced them (except of course for endangered species).
 
Ironically, the scientist at the USDA  (Dr. Wayne F. Wehling) currently in
charge of administering interstate shipping permits was himself involved in
an unpermitted release of 300 tagged California monarchs I sent to him back
in Sept. 1990, when he was a student at Washington State University,
Pullman, WA

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, California